Re: Gina, Barbour and Vaughan on Time

The recent comments by Damien and Robert on a piece of poetry
unknown to me combined with my current reading (Stephenson's
"In the beginning Was the Command Line" have got me thinking.

Stephenson comments on the degree to which modern (esp. American)
entertainment, news, etc. programs people to accept diversity
to the degree that they give up personal culture that dictates
"rights" and "wrongs". Now clearly D. & R. who are two of
the most literary people on the list (IMO), seem to have
rejected the pre-programmed mindsets and formed their own
distinct, perhaps culturally specific, interpretations of
literary method known as "bathos".

Now, offering a comment on the quality of the members of this
list OR perhaps my poor American education OR simply an observation
of how esoteric some of our discussions may become, I will state
that I had never heard of the term "bathos" before today.
Since we may assume I'm not entirely uneducated, I must conclude
that we are discussing highly uncommon topics for the average
individual.

What is really interesting in my mind is whether or not the
D/R opinions are being driven by some absolute criteria,
or criteria that are culturally specific.